


Under Wonderland

by Steangine



Category: Bleach
Genre: Halloween, It had to be a silly thing at the beginning, M/M, Maybe - Freeform, Wonderland AU, but late, not much, some violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-03
Updated: 2018-11-03
Packaged: 2019-08-17 00:01:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16505282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Steangine/pseuds/Steangine
Summary: Ichigo wakes up and Grimmjow, sat at his room's window, waits for him. However, that's not the Grimmjow he knows.[Semi AU. Some violence at a certain point]





	Under Wonderland

**Author's Note:**

> I'm late for Halloween. Or very early.

** 1\. The Cat against the Moon **

Ichigo woke up and saw a dark shadow standing against his window. Blue eyes gleamed unnaturally towards him. Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez looked bored.

“You finally woke up.”

“Grimmjow!”

Ichigo sat down on his bed, his hand already clenched around the Shinigami badge. However, something was wrong. He didn’t get it rationally, but there was something odd in the whole situation. Grimmjow was the same as usual, except for the long (long) grey scarf wrapped twice around his neck. But then Ichigo noticed. He noticed that, even if his resurrection wasn’t activated, he had long cat-like ears covered in light blue and green fur instead of the pair of human ones Ichigo recalled he saw last time they met – the world was on the verge of collapsing, but Ichigo would have recalled that not-so-insignificant particular. And there was a long thin furry tail swinging from right to left and back again right behind him; Ichigo had all the reasons to affirm that thing was connected to Grimmjow’s body, and he seemed to be able to move it of his own volition.

“…is that a mid-stage Resurrection?”

The movement of the tail was so mesmerizing that Ichigo noticed only at last that Grimmjow leaped towards him. He was so fast that he couldn’t stop him. Grimmjow landed gracefully from the window to the bed, without making a sound, as if he was floating in the air. He pressed a hand against Ichigo’s chest and Ichigo didn’t put any resistance: he lied down again and stared into Grimmjow’s eyes, lights gleaming in the shadows. His mind elaborated the idea that he was on his bed, with Grimmjow towering over him, but he couldn’t find the right input to rebel. He only kept gazing at the blue orbs glimmering at him.

“Resurrection? What are you talking about?” As he talked, he showed a pair of sharp dogtooth. “The Red Queen wants you now. Move.” His voice whipped, and the magic broke. Ichigo pushed Grimmjow away using his whole body and jumped down from the bed.

“What the hell are you saying?” He raised his right hand only to find it empty. Ichigo stared dumbfounded at his palm. When he raised his head, he saw Grimmjow waving it; on his face appeared a satisfied smirk. “Give it back, Grimmjow!”

“No.”

“Do you really want to fight me when I’m not a Shinigami?”

Grimmjow put the badge into the back pocket of his trousers. “I don’t know what you mean, but you heard me. I must bring you to the Queen.” He traced a shape in the air in front of him, the tips of his fingers sparkled of a blue light, the same one burning into his eyes, leaving a coloured shadow in the air.

Ichigo recognized the vague shape of a six before his senses stopped working for an endless second. The floor disappeared from under his feet and he fell down, down, down, directly into a pitch-black darkness. When he understood what happened, he was still falling, and, all at once, many different sensations exploded into him.

“What the fuck?!” He yelled as the feeling of void devoured his stomach. “Grimmjow!”

“They told me you know our names.” Grimmjow appeared besides him, or maybe he had always been there and Ichigo only failed to notice. He was falling too but acted like he wasn’t: both hands behind the head and the right foot on the left knee, as if he was leaning on a bed instead of rocketing towards the void. “But it’s still surprising. How do you know mine?”

“What does it mean?!”

“That Alice knows our names.”

“I’m not Alice! My name is Ichigo! You picked the wrong person!”

The deep pit of darkness was slowly changing. The monochrome black hole swallowing them was acquiring shapes and dim sinister lights. Gloomy colours worn by time fought to stand out in that deep pit, various objects arose from the formless shadows, sprouting and growing in front of Ichigo’s eyes: chairs, candles, balls, tables, wardrobes, cupboards, plates, cups, drawers, pencils, teapots, empty clothes danced around him. As he turned his head, Grimmjow was gone again.

“Nah, you’re the right one.” His voice reached him from the opposite side. Ichigo didn’t know how he managed to move without him noticing. Grimmjow changed position, the head leaning on his crossed arms and the only sign that he was falling and not leaning comfortably somewhere like a big cat was the flutter of his hair, his tails and the edges of the scarf. “Ichigo, Alice. They have the same number of beats and letters.”

“They’re totally different! And I’m not a female! I’m a male!”

Ichigo twisted his body to avoid a comfortable-looking chair; despite the fluffy cushion, being hit at that speed wouldn’t have been nice at all.

“Why are you moving like that?”

“I don’t want to be hit!”

Grimmjow snorted. “It’s taking ages.” He ignored Ichigo, reply. “I’m going to make things faster.” Before Ichigo could say anything, Grimmjow grabbed his wrist, and he noticed how long and sharp his nails were, almost like claws. “Don’t close your eyes.”

“Wha–”

The air exploded around them. Ichigo felt a strong tug dragging him down in a vortex of colours and lights (but the blue kept pulsating stronger than the others), and the wind beat his eyes without mercy. Droplets of tears streamed along his forehead. As he closed his eyes, he heard Grimmjow’s voice near him.

“Geez, I told you to keep them open. What a pain in the ass.”

The grip around his wrist disappeared, and Ichigo felt a warm touch on both cheeks. The wind stopped streaming against his face. He was still falling, but Grimmjow was right under him, holding his face and shielding him with his whole body. He was close, his eyes were still gleaming, his dogtooth were pointy and his ears so soft-looking that it was difficult denying the temptation of touching them arose somewhere inside him. Ichigo blushed.

“What are you doing?!”

“If you keep your eyes closed now, you’ll get caught.”

“Caught?”

Grimmjow’s eyes darted aside. Ichigo followed them, just in time to catch something slithering back in the shadows which still were resisting to the colours filling them in to create a flashy kaleidoscope. There were more objects now, ribbons and needles as tall as Ichigo, lavish tulle and endless measuring tapes, thimbles and cushions stabbed with countless pins. All the objects came in different shapes, from the cupboard not bigger than Ichigo’s thumb, to the chair which could have been a bed for at least four people.

Ichigo wondered what that place was – what that dream was! The kaleidoscope surrounding them became a patchwork of tacky wallpapers; stripes, polka dots, flower and other patterns were mixed together by the hand of a crazy mind.

“Nice. We arrived.”

_ Where? _ Ichigo wanted to ask, but the voice froze into his throat. Again, without him being able to follow his movements, Grimmjow disappeared, only to appear behind him and hold him into his arms like a princess. Ichigo was surprised, puzzled, embarrassed and pissed off. All together. That was why it took him a while to realize the endless fall was decelerating; they weren’t flying anymore, they were floating. Or better, Grimmjow was gently gliding in the air, leaping from one object to the other with a feline elegance. The needle, the chair, the teacup; he stepped on a ribbon which wrinkled like water and then jumped down, finally landing on a floor.

Ichigo waited two seconds. “Let me go.”

And Grimmjow obeyed without waiting. Ichigo painfully fell on his rear.

“Hey! Why did you do it?!”

Grimmjow crossed his arms. He looked sincerely puzzled. “You asked me.”

Ichigo stood up. Around him all the objects weren’t flying anymore, but occupied all the space, leaving only a thin slice of moon shaped floor where it was possible walking without climbing on a labyrinth of huge trinkets.

“Is this where your Queen lives?”

He noticed that Grimmjow’s eyes weren’t glowing anymore. “Are you kidding? This is the Hatter’s house.”

“And how am I supposed to know?” Ichigo saw Grimmjow’s ears twitching once.

“He’s coming.”

“Who?”

The reply burst in front of them. A spray of different pieces of cloth wrapped together to form the petals of a bud ready to bloom. It opened slowly in front of their eyes, revealing the most unexpected sight – even if Ichigo wasn’t sure what he should have expected.

The hatter had a long white cylinder decorated with roses of different colours on the top of his long curly hair. There was more cloth composing the flowers climbing around his hat like ivy than the one covering the rest of his body: a small top and a bizarre underwear made with frilly lace and trim was all the Hatter was wearing, and it didn’t seem like an outfit made to cover his body.

“Hatter.” Grimmjow wasn’t looking at him with a mix of surprise and disgust as Ichigo, he was chill as he walked towards him. “Give Alice a dress, I must bring him to the Queen as soon as possible.”

“Why don’t you call me Charlotte? That’s my name!”

Charlotte, the Hatter, was a tall muscular man dressed like an idol on a gravure magazine, and Ichigo was scared when his eyes ogled at him the same way Rukia did whenever she saw something she considered cute. He was so stunned that he forgot to complain that his name was Ichigo and not Alice.

“Oh myyyyyy!!! I wasn’t expecting him to be so beautiful!”

“Yes, yes…” Grimmjow scratched the back of his head. “Just be fast and–” Charlotte bypassed Grimmjow and marched straight towards Ichigo.

Ichigo didn’t wait for him to be close enough to tend a huge arm ad grab him; he dashed in the opposite direction, jumping over a pair of scissors dug into the floor which reached his knees. However, he didn’t even manage to find shelter behind the giant white and golden teapot with prints of red roses on it, that something wrapped around his right ankle. Then around his left knee, and the right wrist, the left arm, his torso. Cloth strips lashed from every angle of that messy place, blocking him on the spot, ready to be handed to Charlotte. Up close, the contrast between his outfit and delicate make up, and his masculine features were more evident.

“Oh, you’ve been chosen!” He chirped in ecstasy. “So fast! And such beautiful shades!”

Blue, black and white stripes kept tangling his body, covering every inch of his clothes. Ichigo tried to wriggle away, but his attempts were useless.

“Don’t be afraid. They’re just eating those shabby clothes you’re wearing now.”

“What?!”

Ichigo had many things he wanted to complain about, but a stripe of light blue cloth covered his mouth. When another one covered one of his eyes, he began struggling again and didn’t listen to Charlotte’s voice as he felt that his whole head was being swallowed by those alive – _alive!_ – stripes. He could breath, but didn’t mind it, as his only thought was trying to escape those shackles. He was suspended in the air, blocked; he couldn’t move, he couldn’t talk, he could barely see. In desperation, Ichigo looked around for Grimmjow. But when he found it, in between that frilly chaos, his chest froze in seeing him leaning on the spout of a teapot, lazily swinging his long tail in the air. He wasn’t looking at him at all.

“Don’t worry dear.” The sharp sound of a pair of scissors, Ichigo moaned, but his voice got lost against the cloth. “I’ll follow your body’s desires and take out of this mannequin the best outfit for you!”

The last strip covered his other eye, and darkness fell on him. The scissors snapped again.

** 2\. Eat me **

Charlotte cut the cocoon of cloth, and Ichigo fell from it lacking the grace of a butterfly. That experience worn his spirit off more than the cruellest of the battles he faced up to that moment. So, it took him a while to notice what he was wearing.

Black boots, striped black and white socks. A light blue dress. Ichigo lost it and didn’t even register that the white decoration on the front wasn’t a decoration but an apron whose strings tied back his waist in a huge ribbon.

“What the hell is with these clothes?!” Ichigo grabbed the skirt with both hands only to realize he’d rather wear a dress than being naked in front of Charlotte’s eyes which were ogling at him as if he was a delicious bowl filled with whipped cream and strawberries. “Give me normal clothes!”

Grimmjow jumped down from his spot. “Those are normal clothes.” What scarred Ichigo the most, was the complete calm he said those words, without the slightest hint of mockery, as if that was normal and he was saying the truth. “We’ve lost enough time.”

Charlotte pouted. “That was because I couldn’t choose among all the designs that–”

“Who cares!” Grimmjow cut him off and grabbed Ichigo’s wrist. “Let’s go.”

“I don’t want to–”

“Do you want to stay here with him?”

Grimmjow pointed at Charlotte with the right thumb.

Charlotte showed such an extreme indignation that he looked almost fake. “How rude!!”

Ichigo looked at him with dead eyes. “Bring me wherever you want.”

And Grimmjow did it. He walked towards a door appeared in the distance, among all that chaos, out of nowhere; Ichigo was right behind him, doing his best not to feel like a complete idiot while walking in a dress. It wasn’t uncomfortable per se, it was just the idea he was dressed as a female that was tingling his pride. To his luck, Grimmjow didn’t seem to care if he was wearing a dress or a rubbish sack, as long as he could bring him to his Queen. At least Ichigo didn’t have to put with any kind of sharp remark or sarcastic joke.

“Grimmjow?

“What?”

“We’ve been walking for a while, and the door isn’t getting any closer.” Ichigo glanced back: there was the same environment around them, the explosion of the wardrobe of a crazy old lady who loved to hoard old stuff. “But I can’t see Charlotte anymore.”

“You always give air to your mouth to state the obvious?”

“That’s not obvious! We should have been there already!”

“No, we shouldn’t. You have a twisted mind.”

Ichigo was puzzled. “I don’t have a twisted mind, but–”

He couldn’t finish. He smacked against a wall, hurting his nose and forehead. Grimmjow looked at his miserable fall the same way he would have looked at a complete idiot.

“Now we arrived. Didn’t you see it?”

No, Ichigo didn’t see it. Because the door always looked so far that it seemed as tall as one of his fingers and he only diverted his eyes from it the time to speak to Grimmjow before he crashed against it. Even if he didn’t crash against the door, but against the wall… mostly because the door was small. Not as a finger, but it wasn’t taller than his hand.

“That’s not the door, right?”

“That’s the door.” Grimmjow frowned. “You’re strange.”

“Have you looked at yourself?”

“Every day, why you ask?”

Ichigo huffed. “Never mind.” He pointed at the door. “How am I supposed to pass through that? I could barely fit my hand in it.”

“Oh, yes. You’re from outside.” Grimmjow pointed up to a spot behind Ichigo. “You must take that.”

Ichigo turned around. He could swear on his own Shinigami badge (who Grimmjow hid somewhere out of his sight) that the huge wrought-iron table wasn’t there before. The chair was as tall as his house and Ichigo had no idea how Grimmjow pretended he could climb up there in his human body. He pointed his index as well.

“You mean that box?”

The table’s legs were in iron, but the upper part was in glass. From down there, they could see a purple box.

“Yes. Go and take it.”

“Why don’t you go?”

“I’d rather spend my existence as a mannequin for the Hatter than touching stuff made by Humpty Dumpty.”

“And you pretend I do it.”

“But you’re Alice, you’ll be fine.”

“I’m Ichigo!” He crossed his arms. “Is there another way?”

“There isn’t.”

“Then I guess I won’t go to the Queen!”

That threat sounded like a kid complaining to another kid and menacing not to play together anymore. But it worked. Grimmjow’s ears twitched, and his expression didn’t change much. However, he let out a bothered snort and grimaced, annoyed, showing his pointy dogtooth.

“Okay.”

Grimmjow became transparent. His colours became dull until Ichigo could see the door through him. Then everything disappeared and only the eyes remained. But they vanished too.

After a handful of seconds, a fall of biscuits as tall as him, fell over his head. The first one smashed behind him with a loud thump. That awakened Ichigo’s instinct of self-preservation and he run far enough not to be crushed by that sweet rain. The biscuits were oval-shaped and covered in coloured icing topped by an ominous white invitation: _eat me_.

“One bite is enough.”

Ichigo raised his head, following the trace of Grimmjow’s voice echoing from up the table. He was leaning on his belly, one arm dangling over the edge and the other used as a support for his head.

“I have to eat them anyway…?” Ichigo inspected the closest biscuit. There was nothing that made them seem dangerous, on the opposite, they seemed quite inviting. And that made him even more suspicious. However, he didn’t have another option. Excluding going back to the unsettling Hatter. Ichigo settled for one tiny bit.

It tasted like chocolate. Delicious.

And dangerous. Ichigo thought it as a bizarre tickling shivered inside his body. He was sure of it as he saw the floor getting further and further from him, while the chair and the table were getting smaller and smaller to the point he was able to use them. But only for a moment. Then they became too small.

“W-what’s going on here?!”

The whole place was getting too small and Ichigo understood that the one which was undergoing a change was him. The endless-looking ceiling wasn’t so endless when his head knocked against it.

“Hey! I was supposed to fit through the door!”

But his body didn’t seem to want to stop growing, so he had to bend forward, curl his legs, twist his arms to make them fit. Until his growth stopped. And he was trapped in a now small uncomfortable corridor which became a prison he couldn’t move in.

“Grimmjow! What the hell you made me eat?!”

“I can see your panties from down here.”

Not the answer Ichigo expected, but definitely one that made him angrier than he was.

“Fuck off! Do something!”

Grimmjow reappeared on his left knee, starting from the ears to finish with the long scarf. He was holding a piece of the biscuit as big as his torso, but for Ichigo that was just something better than a crumble. “Well, you kept staring at my ass while we were walking.”

Ichigo blushed. “I wasn’t! I was looking for my badge, but you have no pockets in your trousers!”

Grimmjow brought one hand behind him, where there should have been at least one pocket that Ichigo didn’t see. And he took out his badge. “I didn’t lose it, see?” Then he put it back under Ichigo’s shocked eyes. “Eat the upper side, not the lower one. I have to tell you everything, really.”

“I know nothing about this place! It’s obvious you have to tell me everything!”

The piece was so little for Ichigo that it melted on his tongue as he put it into his mouth.

The change back was a downfall which cut the breath off Ichigo’s chest. He found himself sitting on the floor, looking at an infinite chair and table disappearing in the void above his head. The door in front of him became double his height and difficult to open. It was made in wood, with a golden keyhole.

“Ah, shit.” Grimmjow was once again near him, in his same micro size. “You didn’t take the key.”

Ichigo’s stomach fell. “What?”

“The key. You cannot open a door without a key and–” Grimmjow had two hands gripped around his scarf and a pair of brown eyes throwing murderous intent at him. “–what’s wrong?” He grinned. “Come on, just kidding.” He showed a golden rusty key. “I took it. I’m not stupid.”

Ichigo let him go and distanced him. “Just bring me to the Queen and let’s end this dream!”

“Dream?”

“Yes. I do this kind of silly dream sometimes. I must do something, so I can wake up. But this one is the strangest ever.”

Grimmjow seemed on the verge of saying something, but he just shrugged and put the key into the keyhole. He turned it once. Something clicked. The first click started a long chain of clicks, like a mechanism moving to do what it was built for. Ichigo hoped that one was built to open the damn door.

It was.

When they passed through the door the strangest things weren’t the huge trees that made him feel like an ant, or the bizarre plants and flowers whispering secrets one to the other. No. Ichigo couldn’t understand why they had just exited from what had all the reasons to be a building but behind them there was only the door and a partial view of the place they had left behind. The door closed on its own.

Grimmjow didn’t seem enthusiast. He lost the glee he showed few seconds prior, when he pulled a prank on Ichigo. He stopped swinging his tail.

“That idiot settled the wrong exit. We had to be right in front of the Queen’s castle.” He clicked his tongue in disgust. “Whatever, we’ll walk a bit.”

Grimmjow didn’t even turn to Ichigo. He walked in front of him, sure that he would have followed him. And in fact, Ichigo did.

“Uhm… Grimmjow?”

Ichigo believed he saw his ears twitching, but wasn’t sure, as the forest was getting darker, painted in bizarre and sinister shades of purple.

“What’s wrong?”

“You talked about a Red Queen. Are there other Queens around here?”

“Only another one. The White Queen. But I don’t know much.”

“Huh?”

“The territories of the White Queen are forbidden for us serving under the Red Queen. Even if I trespassed many times and nobody noticed.” He sounded smug. “But there’s one rumour about the White Queen.”

“What rumour?”

Grimmjow turned towards him, and Ichigo was sure that his eyes gleamed of blue for one instant.

“It seems like the White Queen’s beauty is unmatched.”

“You didn’t manage to see her after all.”

“No. The White Queen is always locked into the deepest rooms of the castle and I cannot go in freely. There are barriers.”

“If you know that, you must have tried. Do you want to see her so bad?”

Grimmjow shrugged. “I want to know if the White Queen is like the Red Queen. Rumours aren’t trustworthy.”

“You’re right.”

Ichigo looked around. Tall trunks of trees, some swirling like the green top of a pumpkin before reaching the far sky; the leaves were above them like a far ceiling and, Ichigo could bet on it, they were really whispering, it wasn’t the sounds of the wind.

“What’s this place?”

“It belonged to nobody, but the Caterpillar used to be the most feared one. Before the old Hatter went mad and claimed this forest.”

“Went mad?”

“I don’t know what happened. But it was a direct hit on the head.”

“…it looks like you exactly know what happened, you know?”

Despite the strange whispering plants around them were unusual, that forest seemed more comfortable than the place they had just left. Even if the thin veil of mist that was blowing from the depth of the forest appeared all of a sudden without a rational reason. But, after all, nothing rational happened since when he woke up in that dream.

“Is this normal?” The mist was getting thicker and Ichigo didn’t need to glance twice at Grimmjow to realize that probably that wasn’t a good sign.

“Stay by my side!”

Grimmjow barked at him and Ichigo saw him tending his arm. But, as he tried to grab the hand, his fingers clenched around a cloud of thick white mist. The intense smell entered all the way to his brain and Ichigo realized it was smoke. As if someone was blowing it out from the forest, it kept coming, moving and surrounding them, covering whatever they could see.

“Grimmjow!” Ichigo called him but didn’t receive any reply. “Grimmjow! This is not fun at all!”

A voice laughed behind him. Sharp and cruel. Ichigo turned around, he spotted a whirl forming inside the smoke, like an invisible hand which was moving it away to create a path only for him. It was suspicious, but he had no other choice. He followed it.

** 3\. Hatter of Hearts **

There was Nnoitra waiting for him at the end of the tunnel. Wearing a yukata in different shades of gray and red, he sat on a gigantic red mushroom which resembled a Japanese parasol. His six arms lazily leant on that bizarre spot and no scythe in sight. The tip of the parasol was a long rope which ended with a holder Nnoitra used to pour out from his mouth the same smoke which divided Ichigo from Grimmjow. He blew different shapes which drew forms in the air for a handful of seconds before becoming shapeless smoke covering the soil and running through the forest like mist. Threads of smoke rose around Ichigo as he walked towards him.

“Why are you doing this?”

Nnoitra’s grin was half of his face.

“Why cannot I do this?”

“Don’t reply with another question.”

“So, you are the one Grimmjow has been sent to retrieve.” Nnoitra exhaled smoke over him; Ichigo coughed. “Alice.”

“My name is Ichigo!”

“What a puny creature you are, you make me want to smash your head…” The evil smile was devoured by a disappointed grimace. “…but the Queen needs you.”

Ichigo was thrown aback. “Why am I here?” His instinct told him to take his badge, but he remembered he didn’t have his badge with him, he was defenceless.

“Because the Queen wants it.” Nnoitra giggled. “What a silly question. Everything here happens because the Queen wants it.” As Nnoitra stood up on his mushroom, Ichigo took a step behind but didn’t retreat anymore. “What if I bring you to the castle instead of Cheshire?” The huge malicious smile appeared again. “Would the Queen finally ask for his shitty head?”

Ichigo had no answer. But someone else had.

“Oh, Caterpillar!”

Something slashed Nnoitra in two halves. The blade appeared out of nowhere, pierced through his head and froze his face into an eternal grin; the sword run through his flesh like a warm knife into butter. Guts and blood poured from inside the dead body, and Ichigo felt his stomach burning in disgust.

“Fooooooound you!”

The high-pitched voice of a young girl, the mastery of a skilled swordsman. Neliel was smiling as happy as she was as a child. However, she was now a grown adult who was laughing in joy with her face and white clothes dirtied with blood. On the top of her head, there was a huge white worn off cylinder.

In the moment she noticed she wasn’t alone, Ichigo stiffened. Nel tilted her head, widened her big childish eyes and opened her mouth in amazement.

“Ah, you are Alice!” A single jump and she was next to him. Nel took Ichigo’s both hands into hers. “I’ve never seen one before.” She kept moving her head to glance at every side of him. “I’m so lucky! You must come to the tea party, okay?”

“Actually, I should go to see the Red Queen and leave–”

“But you cannot leave without drinking some tea and eating some sweets! It’s important!”

Despite the blood, despite she killed Nnoitra without a single flinch, she seemed to be still Nel. Ichigo didn’t know much about her. However, he couldn’t help but feel better seeing a friendly face – the only known Espada who didn’t try to have his head.

“Uhm… okay.”

Neliel dragged him into the forest, now cleaned from the smoke, laughing in joy. “You’ll see, Alice! You’ll have a lot of fun with us!”

She had an adult’s body, but inside she was the child Ichigo first met in Hueco Mundo.

“By the way, my name is Ichigo, not Alice!”

“Uh, okay. I’ll call you as you want then, Ichigo!” She chuckled. “I’m the Hatter, but you can call me Nel. Pesche and Dondochakka call me like that too!”

Ichigo nodded. “Okay, Nel. Do you know how to reach the Red Queen’s castle?”

Every hint brought to the same direction. Ichigo didn’t know if he could find Grimmjow again, but at least he could reach the castle on his own, reach the aim of that dream and finally awaken into his room.

“Of course, I do! I used to stay there aaaaaaall the time!” She laughed. “I’ll bring you there after the tea party, Ichigo!”

Ichigo was grateful. A nice feeling which disappeared as they stepped into the clearing.

A long white table was in the middle as a precious stone on a ring. There were many chairs around it and countless object on it. Teapots, croissants, cups, colourful macarons making rainbows among the plates, sugar bowls, scones, glass cans of jam, spoons, forks, knives and flowers.

Four guests were waiting for them, sitting in silence. They were all dead.

Nel dragged Ichigo to the table and almost slammed him on the chair at the head of the table. Ichigo tried to resist, but Neliel was stronger than he expected, and he was weaker than he recalled: he had forgotten in that moment he was only a mere human struggling with his dream’s counterpart of an Espada.

“Nel, what happened?” As he tried to stand up, something pulled him back on his sit. “What–” He looked down and saw the grass climbing the white chair to keep his, legs, hands and torso still

Nel jumped on the table and sat in front of him, the legs crossed, and a clever smile brightening her face.

“I’m looking for the hearts, so I can repair my friends!” She straightened one arm pointing behind her, where Pesche and Dondochakka were sitting with their eyes emptied of life wide open. Both were wearing fluffy capes and each a pair of animal ears, rabbit and mouse. Opposite to them, there were a blonde female with her throat slashed and a male with pink hair and half of his head smashed, showing an almost empty space dripping blood and what remained of his brain. “But I checked Tier, Szayelaporro, Nnoitra…” She counted them on her fingers. “…and didn’t find one.”

The way she bloated her cheeks in disappointment would have been almost cute, if only she wasn’t talking about having killed people, and Ichigo wasn’t stuck on a chair.

Nel tilted her head. She appeared quite puzzled as she stared at Ichigo.

“Do you have a heart?” Without waiting for an answer, she sat on his lap with legs astride. Ichigo swallowed in distress. Nel touched her lower lip with her left index, while she gently knocked on Ichigo’s chest. “Should it be here?” She bended forward, Ichigo backed his head as much as he could. However, Nel wasn’t aiming at his face. She put her ear against his chest and stayed still. In silence, without almost breathing, she heard the rhythmic fast sound of Ichigo’s heart reacting at his growing agitation.

_ Thump thump thump thump _ .

“So this is a heart’s voice.” Nel smiled. “Your sounds so big. I guess I can divide it between Pesche and Dondochakka!”

“What?” Ichigo lost his breath. “Nel, you cannot–” But she already had her sword in hand. “–do that! Wait! This won’t–” She aimed the sharp tip at Ichigo’s chest. “–work!”

Ichigo clenched his eyes and waited for the pain to pierce his body. But it didn’t arrive.

He opened his eyes again. There was a sharp hand drenched in blood in front of him. The arm drilled into Nel’s chest, taking away her life and giving her the same empty, but vaguely surprised, expression that her dead guests were wearing on their pale faces.

Everything happened fast. Ichigo didn’t see anything, didn’t hear anything but a small “Oh.”, Nel’s last word. The sword fell from her hand, her corpse dangled on the arm who killed her. Grimmjow smacked his lips, annoyed, maybe angered.

“These idiots make it all complicated.” As he took his hand out of Nel’s body, she collapsed on the emerald grass, marking it with her own blood.

The grass withered and Ichigo was free. Yet, he didn’t get up.

“…you killed her.”

“Yes, but she’ll be back.”

“What… do you mean?”

“She went nuts when she was hit on the head. Or was it when her companions were killed?” Grimmjow was uninterested. “Whatever. She’ll be back, because she’s one of those around the Red Queen. We cannot die. The Caterpillar and those two…” He pointed at Tier and Szayelaporro. “…will be back as well eventually. What a pain…”

“Back? What do you mean?”

“I don’t know. When you are chosen for some important role, you’re not you anymore and you cannot die anymore.” Grimmjow shrugged. “Or at least, it’s very difficult finding a way to die once and for all. This is how things go here. Come on, get up.”

His head was spinning. Ichigo was trying to elaborate all the pieces, but it was too complicated finding a logic behind what was happening. He stood up, and a sudden dizziness invaded his body: his legs and arms were trembling, his heart beating fast, his head pulsating. Ichigo felt that sensation once, a single time he never managed to forget. Fear. After more than two years, he felt again the sense of impotence in front of something bigger than him. He wasn’t anymore the powerful Shinigami which protected Soul Society; in that moment, he was an almost normal human being with no special powers to protect the others. And defend himself. He was about to die, if only it wasn’t for Grimmjow, and he was powerless in front of his fate.

“Hey!” Grimmjow clapped the hands once in front of him. The sound of his clap snapped Ichigo out of his silent miserable contemplation of his own weakness. “We’re taking a shortcut. I don’t want to lose you again along the way.”

Ichigo tried to distance him. However, Grimmjow grabbed his hands and the world around them became fuzzy, like covered in a thin layer which was slowly erasing it from around them. Before it totally disappeared, Ichigo felt an overwhelming warm shook pulling from inside his stomach. The very moment he didn’t feel the ground anymore under his feet, he passed out.

** 4\. Hail the Red Queen **

Everything was red. Long columns twisted to reach heart-shaped arches coloured like red clouds scudding a sinister crimson sky. Ichigo was lying on the floor and he believed, for an endless second, he wasn’t looking at a ceiling. He got lost in the infinite curves making that painting seeming like the clouds were moving in front of his eyes. But a familiar voice ripped him away from his silent contemplation.

“I hope you had a nice awakening.”

Aizen .

Ichigo jolted. He sat down and immediately stood up. The long hall was covered in heart tiles leading to the crimson throne adorned with a huge empty shape of a heart which enclosed Aizen like the frame of a painting. Red crown, red clothes, a long red cape. His head was slightly tilted, leaned on the back of his right hand, and everything in the posture of his body conveyed a sense of idleness. However, his eyes glowed of an evil glimmer.

“I admit I was afraid Cheshire would have eaten you.” Aizen stood up, Ichigo took a step behind. “I’m glad he didn’t.”

His steps echoed into the silent hall. The soldiers standing at the sides of Aizen’s path were still like statues, covered in red armours and holding long spears with sharp hearts at the tip. Ichigo glanced behind him and the two soldiers at the sides of the door crossed their spears forming a cross in front of the only exit, silently telling him he had no way to escape.

As Ichigo turned his head, Aizen was in front of him. He covered the huge distance between them in silence, appearing so close to him that Ichigo’s instinct yelled at the danger. Yet, the body was frozen and couldn’t react.

“Are you scared?” Aizen touched his chin and forced him to raise his head. “You’re very young.” He sounded pleased. “You’ll learn fast how to bear this burden.”

“What… burden? What do you mean?”

Ichigo felt his arms again and his legs too. He could move. In that moment, a loud roar shook the whole hall. The huge mosaics composing the windows crashed in countless pieces under the strength of the shock wave. Ichigo smashed against the wall, and he was again on the floor. Aizen stood where he was, his head turned around to the destroyed windows which became screens of the disaster that was happening outside.

The white monster, huge as the entire hall, howled at the sky. Its wings were heads, its torso had three holes and the black mask was deformed in a terrible smirk. Ichigo knew that creature. It was Aizen. The same Aizen who was looking at the monster without showing any particular emotion, but different, hollowified. And huger. As huge as the Tenth Espada after its release.

“Who released the Jabberwock?”

Aizen’s voice was calm and sharp. The soldiers, who looked like statues, showed their living nature and shivered in fear.

“We’ll go stop it, my Queen!” One of them yelled.

Aizen sighed and turned to Ichigo. Behind him, through the windows, the Jabberwock was attempting to fly in the opposite direction from the castle.

“Wait here, Alice.” He smiled. “Or either try to escape. It could be fun chasing you.”

He walked out of the room without fretting, as his long cape rubbed on the floor. It seemed like there wasn’t a huge monster destroying his castle in the attempt of escaping the shackles keeping him tied – Ichigo could barely see them, but there were thin threads tangled around the creature’s neck and wings. All the soldiers followed Aizen, and Ichigo remained alone.

Now he had a chance. He had to stand up and escape, running away until his legs hurt and then keeping until his whole body collapsed. However, his body wasn’t cooperating. That dream was exhausting. Not the usual silly dream where his friends only made him discuss their nonsense choices. That dream was a threat, it was dangerous. Ichigo couldn’t divert his eyes from the figure of the huge monster roaring his desperate cries as many red arrows tried to pierce him without success.

“Wow, it just took this little to make it go on rampage, huh?”

“Grimmjow!”

Grimmjow literally walked out from the wall behind Ichigo. He was witnessing the chaos with a hand against his forehead, as if he wanted to see better.

“Yo. Stand up, you’re going back home.”

“What?”

“Are you deaf?”

“I’m not!” Ichigo felt his legs reacting and he stood up. “You brought me here!”

“Yes. And I’m bringing you back.”

“Why?”

“Because the Queen said so.”

“So he can chase me, huh?” Ichigo avoided the hand trying to grab his arm. “Don’t touch me!”

Grimmjow rolled his eyes. “Okay, it’s not the Queen’s order. I want to send you back home. And the Jabberwock almost had me while I was freeing him.” Ichigo looked better at him and noticed that his left arm was quite different from the right one. It was like the upper layer of the skin was made in smoke and it was evaporating in long thin threads. “I guess freedom is overestimated, then.” He looked annoyed.

“And why you want to free me?”

“For Carroll’s sake, you–”

“Cheshire.”

Both froze.

At the doorstep of the hall, a knight dressed in a red armour was staring at them. His white skin, black hair and green eyes didn’t match at all with the crimson colour on him. His armour was different from the ones Ichigo saw, it was more elaborated, he had a cape on his shoulders and a sword hanging from his hips.

“He’s the last one I wanted to meet now.” Grimmjow remarked while glaring at Ulquiorra. “I didn’t want to do it like this, but…”

Ichigo wanted to ask what he didn’t want to do. But Grimmjow pushed into his hand his badge (Ichigo grabbed it in desperation) and threw his long scarf on his head before he could do anything. The last thing Ichigo managed to see were Grimmjow’s eyes, glowing again in a sinister blue shade, then everything became black and a long piercing sound filled his ears as the world disappeared below him.

** 5\. Back from the hole **

Yuzu’s deafening ringtone woke him up. It came from somewhere on the floor, behind his closed door, but Ichigo heard it anyway from the depth of his slumber. He sat down on the bed: his head was pulsating, and he was sure he had a pretty strange dream. However, he didn’t recall a single bit of it.

“Ichi-nii!” Yuzu knocked at his door. “Are you awake? It’s time we get dressed and go doing trick or treat.”

Ichigo made a quick research into his memories and he recalled his father didn’t want Yuzu and Karin going alone doing trick or treat, so he forced him into being their chaperone. He didn’t even know if he had a costume.

As if Yuzu could read his thoughts, she chirped. “I prepared a costume for you as well!”

Ichigo had no other choice. He forced himself out of the bed.

Half an hour later, he was wearing a pair of cat ears, a pair of trousers with a cat tail hanging from behind and a tight sweatshirt made with furry cloth. Everything in orange.

“Ah, Ichi-nii!” Yuzu, who usually was assertive and calm, kept giving him instruction like a dictator while he dressed up. At least, he managed to avoid having cat whiskers drawn on his face. “Put this around your neck!”

She gave him a long grey scarf. Ichigo stared at it.

“Yuzu, where did you take it?”

“From the old costumes box. There’s wind tonight, you have to cover yourself.”

“You should cover yourself too.” He pointed out glancing at his Alice dress.

Karin’s head, adorned with a pair of long rabbit ears, appeared from behind the door. “You two move! Or I’ll go on my own!”

“Geez, we’re coming, Karin-chan!”

Ichigo didn’t hear his sisters. He was sure he saw that scarf somewhere but couldn’t recall any of the old costumes having it. For some strange reason, his stomach clenched looking at it.

“Ichi-nii!” Yuzu grabbed his arm. “Is everything okay?”

“Uh… yes. I’m coming.”

Ichigo wrapped the scarf around his neck and didn’t think about it anymore.

** Reprise. Other side of the mirror **

When Grimmjow opened his eyes, he didn’t have his scarf anymore. Nor his clothes. He was dressed in a white robe tied on the waist and had many white bandages wrapped around his body. The strange straw floor was white, the bizarre squared paper windows were white, the ceiling was white and the fluffy cover keeping him warm was white. However, his eyes didn’t hurt at all: the light coming from the window and irradiating the white room was just warm and pleasant.

For how Grimmjow tried to get on the defensive the very moment he grasped the noise of steps approaching the place he was in, deep inside he felt a comforting relax that didn’t allow him to nurture any negative thought. He felt safe. And he didn’t like it.

The steps stopped, the door opened sliding to side.

A long white dress (was it really a dress?), a long white cloth belt around his waist, long white sticks keeping the long orange hair tied in a bun.

“You woke up.”

Even the voice was the same. However, Grimmjow knew that young man wasn’t Alice. No. He wasn’t Ichigo.

“Where am I?”

“My friend found you and brought you to my palace.”

Grimmjow didn’t need to ask, he already knew who he was talking to.

“Why didn’t you have me killed?” A sharp itch of pain made forced him to take a deep breath. “After all, the Red Queen would have killed any of your men stepping into his territory.”

The White Queen walked to the bed –which was just a pile of fluffy covers spread on the floor in Grimmjow’s eyes– and knelt with extraordinary grace, despite being wrapped in a long robe similar to a dress. However, his scowl wasn’t graceful at all.

“I’m not like the Red Queen.” He burst out. “Who do you think I am?”

He looked pissed off and all of a sudden lost the distance that Grimmjow felt between them. “The White Queen.”

“Yes, I know who I am!”

“Well, you asked me!” Grimmjow was taken aback and he was too slow at covering the evident surprise gleaming into his eyes: he didn’t expect him to feel so comfortable speaking to another Queen. He felt again safe enough to drop all his defences and didn’t found enough strength to build them again: he had nothing to react to, no treat to oppose to.

“I didn’t ask you that! Are you stupid?!”

“Who are you calling stupid?!”

Grimmjow moved forward, but the pain made him jolt back. As he looked again at the Queen, his face showed a tad bit of concern.

“Your injuries will take a while to heal. It seems like you fought against the Ace of Hearts.”

“It’s none of your business.”

“And protected Alice.” The Queen’s look was intense. “Why did you do it?”

“None of your business.” Grimmjow felt better as he saw the disappointment on his face.

“You are really unpleasant, you know? Why don’t you try to cooperate?”

The Queen was clearly trying to maintain the calm, but the mask of detachment he tried to keep on from the beginning had almost completely crumbled.

“Maybe if you ask me kindly…”

“I’m being kind here!” He let out a loud sigh and stood up. “You’ll have some food later. Now you should rest.”

“I’m hungry now.”

The Queen’s eyebrows twitched. “Alright then… but you need to rest, Grimmjow.”

Those words silenced the sharp reply he already had on the tip of his tongue. Grimmjow looked at the Queen, so surprised that he couldn’t hide it. Once again, he felt safe displaying himself in that environment.

“I almost forgot, the Queens know everyone’s name.” He laid back on his bed. In the last few hours he was called with his true name many times, but he wasn’t used anymore to it. Before hearing Ichigo pronouncing it, he believed he had forgotten it. “Let me rest.”

“Of course, your majesty. Do you also want something to read?” The Queen sounded bitter, but there was something calm and sweet into his voice.

“No, some food.”

“I’m not your servant!” However, after a few seconds of tense silence, he added. “I’ll make sure you’ll have something to eat.”

Grimmjow talked again as the Queen was opening the door. “Hey. You know what?”

The Queen turned to him again. “What?”

“You’re more beautiful than rumours say.”

Grimmjow saw him walking outside the room and slowly closing the door behind him, then, he closed his eyes and fell asleep. On the other side of the door, the White Queen covered his mouth with the sleeve of the kimono: the reddish shade painting his cheeks betrayed the severe look of his eyes.

**Author's Note:**

> When I started writing it, there was less blood in the project.


End file.
